Greenhouse gas emissions are increasing every year, and in Sweden the construction industrystands for one fifth of the total emissions. One way for construction companies to push formore sustainable development is through voluntary sustainability certifications. As the numberof certified projects continues to rise, how to manage these projects during the early stagesbecomes an increasingly important question. Therefore, the purpose of this report has been toexplore and identify factors of success, connected to the management of certified constructionprojects during early project stages, in a relatively unexplored Swedish context. Data was collected through a literature review and seventeen semi-structured interviews withindustry professionals, and the following thematic analysis resulted in a refined list of factorsto consider during early project stages for successful certification. By applying critical successfactor (CSF) as theoretical framework, fifteen critical success factors were identified andcompared with those from previous research. Integrating the certification, planning for it duringearly stages, certification reconciliation meetings and a driven and competent specialist areexamples of identified CSFs from this list. Conclusions drawn in this report are that the Swedish context does not differ much fromprevious research, as most success factors had previously been identified by others.Furthermore, the results of this report indicate that the sustainability specialist, coordinator orconsultant is an increasingly important role for certified projects, and that they need trust,mandate and space to coordinate the work with the certification. Lastly, contributions havebeen made to the field of research on certified construction projects by providing a list ofsuccess factors with examples and data from Swedish industry professionals. This list canadditionally be considered by industry professionals when undertaking certified constructionprojects. Some issues concerning the application of CSF as framework have also beendiscussed in this report, which researchers in the field can consider for their future researchendeavors. / Utsläppen av växthusgaser ökar varje år och i Sverige står byggbranschen för en femtedel avde totala utsläppen. Ett sätt för byggföretag att driva på för en mer hållbar utveckling är genomfrivilliga hållbarhetscertifieringar. I takt med att antalet certifierade projekt ökar, blir hur manhanterar dessa projekt under de tidiga stadierna en allt viktigare fråga. Syftet med denna uppsatshar därför varit att utforska och identifiera framgångsfaktorer kopplade till ledningen avcertifierade byggprojekt under tidiga projektskeden, i en relativt outforskad svensk kontext. Data insamlades med en litteraturstudie och sjutton semistrukturerade intervjuer med personerfrån byggindustrin, och den följande tematiska analysen resulterade i en lista över faktorer attbeakta under tidiga projektstadier för framgångsrik certifiering. Genom att använda criticalsuccess factor (CSF) som teoretiskt ramverk identifierades femton kritiska framgångsfaktorersom jämfördes med dem nämnda i tidigare forskning. Integrering av certifieringen, planeringför den i tidiga skeden, certifieringsavstämningsmöten och en driven, kompetent specialist ärexempel på identifierade kritiska framgångsfaktorer från denna lista. Slutsatser som dras i denna uppsats är att den svenska kontexten inte skiljer sig mycket fråntidigare forskning, då de flesta framgångsfaktorer redan identifierats av andra. Vidare indikerarresultaten i denna uppsats att hållbarhetsspecialisten, koordinatorn eller konsulten är en alltviktigare roll i certifierade projekt, och att de behöver förtroende, mandat och utrymme för attsamordna arbetet med certifieringen. Den här uppsatsen har bidragit till forskningsområdet omcertifierade byggprojekt genom att tillhandahålla en lista över framgångsfaktorer med exempeloch data från personer inom den svenska byggindustrin. Denna lista kan dessutom användasav personer inom branschen framöver, när de tar sig an certifierade byggprojekt. Vissa problemsom rör tillämpningen av CSF som ramverk har också diskuterats i denna uppsats, som forskareinom området kan överväga för sin framtida forskning.

The aim of this project was to develop a holistic approach to building-performance assessment without limiting it to energy use (usually expressed in kWh/m2/year), but rather include more parameters that represent the following aspects: Economic, environmental, and quality of service provided to the occupant/client. If it can be shown that buildings can be operated not only in an energy-efficient way, but also in a way that takes into consideration the needs of the occupants, a case could be built that a higher quality of indoor environment does not necessarily mean a higher economic impact. It is also important to show that having access to high-quality building-performance data leads to high-quality analysis and visualisation, and consequently to a chance to detect faults and improve building operation. To answer these questions, a large office building in Stockholm, Sweden was used as a case study. The building was equipped with energy meters and 1,700 sensor points, uniformly distributed over the occupied areas, that measured room temperature, duct temperature, occupancy presence/absence and supply airflow, in addition to other states. The data was processed using RStudio, and various types of visualisation plots were used, including carpet plots, masked scatter plots, bar plots, line graphs, and boxplots. The data pointed to some interesting results. First, just knowing the energy use is not sufficient for understanding the quality of the service provided to the occupants. Second, performing a thorough analysis of room unit data can detect faults. Third, using carpet plots for energy-data visualisation is effective for energy-use pattern recognition. Finally, visualising the building performance parameters in a parallel coordinate plot is a more informative representation of integrated building performance compared to the energy performance certificates typically used today. / <p>QC 20160916</p>

This thesis explores if and how an alternative certification system for agricultural products, the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS), could support small-scale farmers to preserve and promote biocultural and food heritage, linked to the landscape they inhabit, their identity as farmers and traditional knowledge. The PGS has been identified by Slow Food as an efficient low-cost and local 'bottom-up' quality assurance system, in order to develop their Presidia project and to re-embed agricultural productions within their traditional socio-ecological contexts. Small-holder farmers all over the world encounter problems in accessing conventional certification systems because of their complexity and strict quality compliance standards, which tend to marginalize this category of producers. I have critically analyzed the extent to which actors and stakeholders agree with the PGS core principles and if, and how, a well-formulated PGS certification can be regarded as a democratic process which fulfils its broader goals. In order to re-structure society from an agri-food perspective, towards a more democratic governance, the core problem lays in how standards and certifications are formed, assessed and applied. The crux of this study is to examine the degree to which a different type of governance, such as the PGS, can induce democratic and participatory methods of food certification. I have conducted semi-structured interviews with various local actors who belong to the social field of alternative food productions underneath the umbrella of Slow Food. Here I investigate the social dimension, the debate and comprehension of the PGS, and the concept of Governmentality by Foucault, as applied to Presidia. In the thesis I show that the PGS provide social benefits to local communities that undergo this certification process. The PGS is able to contribute to the creation of solidarity among actors within the food system, designing a transparent certification system against the logic of commodification.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether or not green certificates have an impact on income-generating commercial buildings' rent compared to similar non-certified commercial buildings. In addition, evaluate if there exists a variation in the rent premium between the different certifications and if the rental premium increases with the distance from city center. To answer the research questions a quantitative approach with hedonic pricing regressions has been conducted. For the purpose of this study, three types of hedonic regressions models have been estimated. To capture the effect of green certificates, the models have controlled for structural, locational and, quality attributes of the buildings. The first model examinedwhether certified office buildings archive a rent premium compared to non-certified buildings. The second model separated the label into indicator variables to capture the effect of each individual label. Lastly, the third model analyzed the progressive effect of the interaction between distance and certification. This study uses a dataset of rent observations for office buildings from four major Swedish cities – Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö and Uppsala – in order to analyze the rent premium of green certifications. The result of this study indicates that there exists a premium of 4,9 to 5,4 percent for certified buildings. When investigating each certification label the results indicate a rental premium of 10 percent forBREEAM, 5,1 percent for LEED, and 4,4 percent for Miljöbyggnad. Lastly, the finding suggests an incremental premium for certified buildings located farther away from the city center. This study contributes to the rising literature on the topic of green office buildings, as it is the first study to investigate the rental impact of green certification on the Swedish market. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka om miljöcertifieringar har en hyrespåverkan på kontorsbyggnader, i jämförelse med liknande icke-certifierade kontorsbyggnader. Vidare,undersöka om hyrespremien skiljer sig mellan de olika miljöcertifieringarna samt om hyrespremien ökar med avståndet från citykärnan. För att kunna besvara forskningsfrågorna har regressionsanalyser genomförts, bestående av tre olika modeller. Modellerna kontrollerar för strukturella, lägesspecifika och kvalitativa attribut. Den första modellen undersöker huruvida certifierade byggnader erhåller en högre hyra i jämförelse med icke-certifierade byggnader. Den andra modellen separerar de olika typerna av miljöcertifieringar för att undersöka vilken certifiering som bidrar med högst hyrespremie. Slutligen, den tredje modellen analyserar den stegvisa effekten av interaktionen mellan avstånd och certifiering. Datasetet som studien baseras på består av hyreskontrakt från de fyra största städerna iSverige – Stockholm, Göteborg, Malmö och Uppsala. Resultaten påvisar att det existerar en hyrespremie för certifierade byggnader på 4,9 till 5,4 procent. Premien skiljer sig beroende på vilken certifiering byggnader har, resultaten påvisar en hyrespremie på 10 procent för BREEAM, 5,1 procent för LEED och 4,4 procent för Miljöbyggnad. Resultaten visar även att det finns en stegvis hyrespremie för certifierade byggnader som är belägna längre bort från stadens centrum. Avslutningsvis, denna studie bidrar till den befintliga litteraturen gällande gröna byggnader, då det är den första studien i Sverige som undersöker förhållandet mellan hyresnivå och miljöcertifieringar.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-04T18:24:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Lorenzo Campos Coiado.pdf: 6103508 bytes, checksum: c9033d87024f0bd094c3b96518ddfa4d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-12-11 / This work presents an analysis of the electromagnetic field in urban buildings having as motivation the search for buildings sustainability. The study of certifications that evaluate buildings environmental performance raises the need to study the electromagnetic fields, which is considered one factor of human comfort. The study of electromagnetic fields allows the development of analytical methodologies of the "Field Energy? (around 60 Hz) and "Field Communication" (with frequencies in the range between 915 MHz and 2.4 GHz). The analysis of the emissions makes possible to identify the sources causing electromagnetic emissions and their mitigation. As sustainability solution, it was developed a non-destructive sensor for monitoring the energy efficiency of buildings, enabling a simple and inexpensive solution to assess the energy consumption of a building without destroying existing installations. / Este trabalho apresenta uma an?lise das emiss?es de campos eletromagn?ticos em edifica??es urbanas tendo como motiva??o a busca pela sustentabilidade de edifica??es. O estudo de certifica??es que avaliam o desempenho ambiental real?ou a necessidade de estudar os campos eletromagn?ticos dispersos no ar, sendo este um dos fatores de conforto humano. O estudo dos campos eletromagn?ticos permite o desenvolvimento de metodologias de an?lise do ?Campo Energia? (com frequ?ncia em torno de 60 Hz) e ?Campo Telecomunica??es? (com frequ?ncias na faixa entre 915 MHz e 2.4GHz). A an?lise das emiss?es torna poss?vel identificar onde est?o localizadas as fontes causadoras das emiss?es eletromagn?ticas e possibilita sua mitiga??o. Como solu??o de sustentabilidade foi desenvolvido um sensor n?o destrutivo para monitoramento da efici?ncia energ?tica de edifica??es, possibilitando uma solu??o simples e barata para o levantamento do consumo de energia de uma edifica??o sem destruir constru??es j? existentes.

<p>Using coffee as the example, the five certifications; Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, UTZ Certified, EU certification for organic farming and KRAV are explored. A consumer perception survey and a comparative analysis of the certifications true achievements are compared in order to establish how well consumer perceptions reflect certification demands.</p><p>Rainforest Alliance and UTZ Certified largely upholds existing conditions. Fair Trade, KRAV and the EU certification in different ways aims to improve them. KRAV is the most well-known certification, followed by Fair Trade. 85% of the respondents associate KRAV with organic production and 80% of the respondents recognising the Fair Trade logotype associate it with taking strong social responsibility.</p><p>Overall, the results from the consumer survey conform relatively well to the actual standards of the certifications. However some results suggest that Rainforest Alliance holds a higher degree of appreciation than it actually deserves. In a broader perspective this can be associated to the phenomena of Greenwashing; corporative attempts to make a product or service seem more environmentally beneficent than it actually is. This is something that should be taken seriously since it does not contribute to a sustainable development, it might fuel the hollowing out of certificatory initiatives and further complicate for those consumers aiming to shop responsibly.</p> / <p>Med kaffe som exempel utreds de fem certifieringarna; Rainforest Alliance, Rättvisemärkt, UTZ Certified EU:s certifiering för ekologisk produktion och KRAV. Genom en konsumentuppfattningsstudie och en granskning av certifieringarnas faktiska åstadkommanden jämförs sedan resultaten med syfte att fastställa hur väl konsumenters uppfattning speglar certifieringarnas krav.</p><p>Rainforest Alliance och UTZ Certified söker till största del upprätthålla nuvarande situation. Rättvisemärkt, EU:s certifiering samt KRAV söker på olika sätt förbättra den. KRAV är den mest välkända certifieringen följt av Rättvisemärkt. 85 procent respondenterna förknippar KRAV med ekologisk produktion och 80 procent av dem som känner igen Rättvisemärkts logotyp förknippar certifieringen med starkt socialt ansvarstagande.</p><p>På det hela taget är resultaten från konsumentuppfattningsstudien relativt väl överensstämmande med certifieringarnas faktiska åstadkommanden. Dock tyder vissa resultat på att uppfattningen av Rainforest Alliance är mer positiv än vad certifieringen förtjänar. I ett större perspektiv kan detta kopplas till fenomenet Greenwashing; företags försök att få sina produkter eller tjänster att framstå som mer miljövänliga än vad som egentligen är fallet. Det är någonting som bör tas på allvar då det motverkar en hållbar utveckling, riskerar att urholka andra, mer långtgående certifieringsinitiativ och ytterligare försvåra för de konsumenter som försöker handla med omsorg för människor och miljö.</p>

Using coffee as the example, the five certifications; Rainforest Alliance, Fairtrade, UTZ Certified, EU certification for organic farming and KRAV are explored. A consumer perception survey and a comparative analysis of the certifications true achievements are compared in order to establish how well consumer perceptions reflect certification demands. Rainforest Alliance and UTZ Certified largely upholds existing conditions. Fair Trade, KRAV and the EU certification in different ways aims to improve them. KRAV is the most well-known certification, followed by Fair Trade. 85% of the respondents associate KRAV with organic production and 80% of the respondents recognising the Fair Trade logotype associate it with taking strong social responsibility. Overall, the results from the consumer survey conform relatively well to the actual standards of the certifications. However some results suggest that Rainforest Alliance holds a higher degree of appreciation than it actually deserves. In a broader perspective this can be associated to the phenomena of Greenwashing; corporative attempts to make a product or service seem more environmentally beneficent than it actually is. This is something that should be taken seriously since it does not contribute to a sustainable development, it might fuel the hollowing out of certificatory initiatives and further complicate for those consumers aiming to shop responsibly. / Med kaffe som exempel utreds de fem certifieringarna; Rainforest Alliance, Rättvisemärkt, UTZ Certified EU:s certifiering för ekologisk produktion och KRAV. Genom en konsumentuppfattningsstudie och en granskning av certifieringarnas faktiska åstadkommanden jämförs sedan resultaten med syfte att fastställa hur väl konsumenters uppfattning speglar certifieringarnas krav. Rainforest Alliance och UTZ Certified söker till största del upprätthålla nuvarande situation. Rättvisemärkt, EU:s certifiering samt KRAV söker på olika sätt förbättra den. KRAV är den mest välkända certifieringen följt av Rättvisemärkt. 85 procent respondenterna förknippar KRAV med ekologisk produktion och 80 procent av dem som känner igen Rättvisemärkts logotyp förknippar certifieringen med starkt socialt ansvarstagande. På det hela taget är resultaten från konsumentuppfattningsstudien relativt väl överensstämmande med certifieringarnas faktiska åstadkommanden. Dock tyder vissa resultat på att uppfattningen av Rainforest Alliance är mer positiv än vad certifieringen förtjänar. I ett större perspektiv kan detta kopplas till fenomenet Greenwashing; företags försök att få sina produkter eller tjänster att framstå som mer miljövänliga än vad som egentligen är fallet. Det är någonting som bör tas på allvar då det motverkar en hållbar utveckling, riskerar att urholka andra, mer långtgående certifieringsinitiativ och ytterligare försvåra för de konsumenter som försöker handla med omsorg för människor och miljö.

Society is becoming increasingly dependent on the development of institutions generatingsustainability. In order to speed up this development there is a need to find, evaluate andgeneralize existing institutional mechanisms holding this characteristic. In this study, the current theoretical framework is expanded to describe how an institution shouldbe designed to generate sustainability. To explain this, a distinction is made between short-termefficient markets (currently known as Pareto-efficient markets) and long-term efficient markets(currently known as ‘strong’ or ecologic sustainability). Further, a sustainable development isdefined as a combination of short-term and long-term Pareto-efficiency. This implies that aconsumption decision today cannot make an individual better off, without making anothercurrent or future individual worse off. Green building certifications are an interesting candidate to empirically test the theoreticalframework. An empirical study was made in cooperation with Confederation of Indian Industry -Indian Green Building Council, consisting of 18 qualitative interviews with companies andexperts in the Indian building industry. The main purpose of the study has been to investigatewhy actors engage in green building and green building certifications, or why they do not. Theresults have then been analyzed and put in an institutional context. Building on these results, conclusions have been drawn that bring a valuable perspective to theongoing debate on sustainability. Green building certifications have several interestingcharacteristics contributing to a sustainable development. Most importantly, results areindicating that short-term economic efficiency can lead to long-term mechanisms generatingsustainability. However, there are also limitations to the growth of certifications as an institution,e.g. cultural aspects, risk of ambiguity and insufficient levels of human capital. / Utvecklingen av institutioner som genererar hållbarhet blir allt viktigare. För att påskynda dennautveckling finns det ett behov av att hitta, utvärdera och generalisera befintliga institutionellamekanismer som uppfyller denna egenskap. För att kunna beskriva hur en institution bör utformas för att generera hållbarhet, utökar dennastudie det aktuella teoretiska ramverket. En distinktion görs mellan kortsiktigt Pareto-effektivamarknader (detta är att likställas med nuvarande begreppet ’Pareto-effektiva marknader’) ochlångsiktigt Pareto-effektiva marknader (detta är att likställas med ’ekologisk hållbarhet’). Vidareär hållbar utveckling definierad som en kombination av kortsiktigt- och långsiktigt effektivamarknader. Detta innebär att ett konsumptionsbeslut idag inte kan öka välfärden för en individ,utan att minska välfärden för en annan nuvarande eller framtida individ. Certifieringar för hållbart byggande är en intressant kandidat för att empiriskt testa det teoretiskaramverket. Fallstudien gjordes i samarbete med Confederation of Indian Industry - Indian GreenBuilding Council, och består av 18 kvalitativa intervjuer med företag och experter inom denindiska byggindustrin. Det huvudsakliga syftet med studien har varit att undersöka varför aktörerengagerar sig i grönt byggande och certifieringar, eller varför de väljer att inte göra det.Resultaten har sedan analyserats och satts i ett institutionellt sammanhang. Som institution har certifieringarna flera intressanta egenskaper som bidrar till en hållbarutveckling. Slutsatserna i studien skänker ett värdefullt perspektiv till den pågåendehållbarhetsdiskussionen, framförallt genom att påvisa att kortsiktig ekonomisk effektivitet kanleda till mekanismer som skapar hållbar utveckling. Det finns också begränsningar i tillväxten avdenna typ av institution som kan härledas till t.ex. kulturella skillnader, antalet certifieringar påmarknaden samt tillgång till humankapital.

The intent of this report is to distinguish the significance of interiors to obtain social sustainability in office environments as well as identifying selected environmental rating systems’ weaknesses and strengths concerning the inclusion of social criteria. To conduct the study an extensive literature study and several interviews have taken place. The study has resulted in 45 different criteria, which all are significant to obtain in a social sustainable office environment. To make the results easier to understand and interpret they are presented graphically with a custom designed tool, titled Duis Socialis. Using this tool, the criteria for social sustainability are presented along with the results from the review of the environmental rating systems. The results of this study shows that the environmental rating systems have a predominance towards the technical criteria in comparison with the criteria concerning sociology, culture and equality. This trend is most likely a consequence of the technical criteria being easier to quantify as well as containing distinguishable exposure-response relationships. The one criterion that could be identified in all of the environmental rating systems was Toxic-free materials. This is most likely because it is easy to quantify and is an important criterion seen from an environmental point of view. Six criteria were not identified in any of the systems: Power structures, Gender neutrality, Open spaces, Orderliness, Physically attractive interiors and Viable technology. None of the reviewed environmental rating systems do a clear attempt to include social sustainability, with the exception of WELL Building Standard. WELL Building Standard: New and Existing Interiors and WELL Building Standard: New and Existing Buildings were the environmental rating systems that fulfilled the most criteria. This may be because WELL Building Standard focusses on health and well-being instead of being a pure environmental rating system. Also, WELL Building Standard has been used to help identify the social criteria used in this study. The system that fulfilled least criteria was BASTA, it only fulfilled Toxic-free materials. This is because BASTA has a clearly stated focus on toxic-free materials and nothing else. The results of this study aim to increase the awareness of social sustainability and are by the authors of this report seen as a first step in the process. In the future the authors believe in the introduction of sustainability rating systems and sustainability certifications in which the economic, ecologic and social dimensions of sustainable development are included.

La presente investigación se enfocó en determinar la relación del Comercio Justo con las comunidades exportadoras peruanas de banano orgánico de la Región Piura, específicamente la variación de las exportaciones, calidad de vida, certificaciones y desarrollo de capacidades, durante el periodo 2014 - 2018, la investigación fue de un enfoque cuantitativo correlacional y por las características de este estudio, también se utilizó un enfoque de investigación cualitativa. Para el enfoque cuantitativo se estudiaron 14 comunidades utilizando estadística correlacional de Rho Spearman, usando el software estadístico SPSS IBM; para el enfoque cualitativo, se utilizó muestreo no probabilístico por conveniencia, aplicando una entrevista semi-estructurada, usando el programa Atlas ti 8. Los resultados arrojaron que el Comercio Justo si está relacionado con la calidad de vida de las comunidades exportadoras, la adquisición de las certificaciones y el desarrollo de capacidades de los exportadores lo que conlleva a un mayor número de exportaciones durante los años 2014-2018 en Perú. / This research focused on determining the relationship of Fair Trade on Peruvian organic banana exports from the Piura region, specifically the variation in exports, quality of life, certifications and capacity development, during the period 2014-2018, the research was a correlacional quantitative approach and due to the characteristics of this study, a qualitative research approach was also used. For the quantitative approach, 14 communities and / or associations were studied using descriptive statistics, using the SPSS IBM statistical software; For the qualitative approach, non-probability sampling was used for convenience, applying a semi-structured interview, using the Atlas.ti 8 program. The results showed that fair trade has a relationship on the quality of life of exporting communities, the acquisition of certifications and capacity building of exporters leading to a greater number of exports during the years 2014-2018 in Peru. / Tesis